my university of texas law school prepared me to be what i could be. it has been a privilege to walk these halls in the capital of the world's gratis and long serving democracy. -- greatest and long serving moxie. --democracy. we know exactly where we were in the minute we knew there was a terrorist attack on america. though we have suffered a horrific attack, the strength, resilience, and extraordinary acts of kindness of the american people showed the world that attempts to destroy our way of life would never succeed. on that day, no one could get in or out of washington. many communication networks were not operable. when the pentagon was hit and the capitol was evacuated, my staff and i walked to my home on capitol hill. the husband of my office manager work in a section of the pentagon that had been hit. we were on the one phone that we had an call the hospitals, police, anyone that we thought might be able to tell us if he was safe. thankfully, he was fine. but there were so many who waited for hours and called hospitals to hear from their loved